Hold Congress Accountable

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Key Vote

As one of our million-plus FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011. Introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), the bill would eliminate the current audit restrictions placed on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and require a full and thorough audit of the Federal Reserve.

Since its inception in 1913, the Federal Reserve has never been audited. It has always operated under a certain veil of secrecy. Our dollar has lost 97 percent of its value since its creation. Many economists have found that the central bank’s loose monetary policy played a major role in the current economic crisis. It is more crucial than ever that the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions be open to congressional oversight. Without a comprehensive audit, we will never know how the Fed is manipulating our money behind closed doors.

The American people overwhelmingly support auditing the Federal Reserve. We will not settle for a one-time watered down audit of the Federal Reserve which was included in the misguided Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law passed last summer. According to a recent Rasmussen Report poll, 74 percent of adults are in favor of a comprehensive audit the Federal Reserve. In the last congressional session, Rep. Ron Paul’s audit the Federal Reserve legislation won a bipartisan group of 320 cosponsors before passing the House.

With opaque bank bailouts done through “quantitative easing” among other programs, the Federal Reserve has violated the trust granted to it that allowed for secretive operations. With sound money crucial to our future prosperity, we must push for a full audit to bring much-needed transparency and accountability to the overreaching central bank. I urge you to contact your representative and ask her or her to cosponsor H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 today.

Sincerely,

Matt KibbePresident and CEO FreedomWorks[Click here for a PDF version of this letter.]

Cosponsorship update: As of July 4, 2012, H.R.459 had 263 cosponsors, or 60 percent of House Members.

Floor timing update: We expect the House to vote on H.R.459 sometime between July 23 and August 3, 2012.

Dear FreedomWorks member, As one of our million-plus FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011. Introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), the bill would repeal federal legal tender laws and tax laws that penalize the use of gold and silver coins as money. The Free Competition in Currency Act would help restore sound money by allowing Americans to choose a currency among competing currency that works best for them.

Democracy and Power 107: Counting votes In a democracy, the politician must favorably influence the majority of their voting constituents. In all political decisions, the politician calculates how many votes are gained by voting-money spent on interest groups versus how many votes are lost. Politicians Must Listen to - We the People

Americans are feeling the pain at the gas pump. Gasoline prices have soared 42 cents a gallon since the beginning of the year. The nationwide average is now $3.74 a gallon, a 101 percent increase from January 2009. So who’s to blame?

[Click here to see a PDF version of this report.]1. The Federal Reserve Has Far Too Much Power to Control Our Economy Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has the power to dramatically impact our economy at

I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.—Thomas Jefferson Last week on January 26th Congress voted against a measure to deprive the president of the authority to raise the debt ceiling. In a 44 – 52 vote, the president was granted permission to add another $1.2 trillion to the national debt, deferring for some time any difficult albeit necessary fiscal decisions. For the first time in over half a century, the national debt is roughly equal to the gross domestic product of the United States. This situation is analogous to an individual whose debts are equal to the total value of his income and savings. Mainstream economists will note, however, that this is not as dire of a situation as it first appears to be. After World War II, the national debt was 122 percent of GDP, about 22 percent higher than that of today. This is true, although there are several other factors that are worth consideration in comparing and contrasting the fiscal solvency of the United States in 1946 with that of today.

The Federal Reserve fought tooth and nail for over two years to keep their actions hidden from the American people. The central bank lost part of their battle for secrecy when they were court ordered through a Freedom of Information Act request to release 29,000 pages of documents earlier this year.

Ron Paul recently released his bold “Plan to Restore America,” which would cut nearly a whopping $1 trillion in one year and eliminate five federal departments. While many Republicans like to talk about slashing spending, Ron Paul has consistently proved himself to be a rare man in Washington who can walk his talk.

I’ve been closely following the loosely organized Occupy Wall Street protests on social media sites over the past few weeks. Now, I’m all for citizen activism and freedom of assembly, but I’m still unconvinced that most of these protesters know what exactly they're protesting. They’re angry about the state of the economy and rightfully so. While I sympathize with their frustration towards our weak economy, their anger is largely misdirected. They would be better off to pick up and move their protests down a few blocks to the New York Federal Reserve building.

Eliminating the Department of Education used to be a standard Republican talking point. In 1980, Ronald Reagan ran on abolishing the federal department soon after Jimmy Carter created it. The 1996 GOP platform read, “the Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family choice at all levels of learning.”

Speculation has risen that Fed chairman Ben Bernanke may announce yet around round of quantitative easing or QE3 on Friday. As economist Thomas Sowell says, “when people in Washington start creating fancy new phrases, instead of using plain English, you know they are doing something they don't want us to understand.” The term quantitative easing in layman’s terms just means that the Fed will print more money out of thin air. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for starters, the value of the U.S.